IT seems we live in an age when few want to become involved in other people's problems.

Nevertheless, it is hard to understand how anyone can calmly pass by and ignore someone who is about to try killing himself by jumping from a footbridge onto a busy road.

Fortunately for the man who was teetering on the wrong side of the barrier on a bridge over Tewkesbury Way, Steve Foggoa was prepared to intervene. Without him the would-be suicide might now be dead, and one or more of the road users below might, at the very least, be seriously injured.

The man has now been detained under the Mental Health Act, and it would be interesting to know whether those who walked past him are having a tussle with their conscience.

It is not easy to approach somebody who is apparently irrational and being abusive. But when that person is within inches of killing himself this is a risk we should be willing to take.

Swindon people are well known for being generous with their money. It would be nice to think we were equally open-hearted in dealing with emergencies such as the one which sent Mr Foggoa into action.

We congratulate him.